Gaming 2007: The King is Dead, Long Live the ?????
Ryan Dancey, the former VP at Wizards of the Coast and one of the major players in D&D 3rd Edition and the d20 OGL movement, has posted some rather dire predictions in his blog. But at the end is one small nugget of hope...
Dancey says:
"By GenCon SoCal the industry will be dealing with a rampant sense of doom, fed by the continuing erosion of retailers, the bad news from Upper Deck, and widespread late (or non) payment of freelance designers and artists caused by a cashflow crisis throughout the mid-tier of publishers. For industry insiders, this will be a period similar to that of 1996. The tumult, chaos and confusion will obscure the emergence of a new game platform, probably created by a new company from outside the industry, and possibly sold through a retail channel that only partially overlaps with the hobby gaming industry, which will create a whole new ecosystem in the hobby gaming space. For those paying very careful attention, year's end will present a ray of hope in an otherwise disastrous time - creating a way out of the trap of the collapsing retailer tier."
Gamegrene would love to hear what your predictions are for what this "new game platform" will involve.
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If I had to take a wild guess I'd say News Corporation via MySpace and/or Google launching off their pay system which still oddly excludes subscriptions.
If even half his doom and gloom is right it sounds like an ideal time to be an indy and take a shot at the moon, wouldn't you say?
Knowing Dancey, his prediction of the next big thing is whatever he happens to have money invested in.
Or maybe I'm just still bitter about the way he flushed Living City down the toilet (not that I had much enthusiasm left after the botched 3E conversion anyway).
It's GIJoe Vs Transformers clicky-wheel with interchangable parts and real light up eyes.
Or Pogs.
Pogs: The Collectinating
I thought he was talking about a delivery infrastructure that would undermine the brick and mortar foundations of the world and sling the three one-eyed giants into the vortex. Or was that Ragnarök?
The heck with it. I'm easy, I'll go with Pogs.
Knowing the way that the rest of the entertainment industry is going, I would place a guess in some sort of anime Pokemon/Naruto crossover RPG that would inexplicably take the RPG market by storm, or at least the elementary school enthusiast portion of it. And, knowing both of those franchises, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an electronic and/or cardboard gimmick that forced players to continually shell out cash.
Just imagine: Big-haired loud-mouthed ninja with inexplicable super powers running about doing battle with their tame monster pets, who also happen to have inexplicable super powers. And, its DICELESS!!! That's right kids, all you have to do to resolve combat is purchase these special electronic miniatures with a character sheet pre-programmed in, all at a reasonable price of $9.95 a pop*! Just connect two or more miniatures through the special wireless infra-red sensor, and you're only ten computation minutes away from a hands-free, dice-free, painless combat result!!! And, they make cool beeping sounds!
*Blank miniatures for the programming of custom-made characters run from $19.99-$39.99, with the ones with cooler figurines costing much, much more. Keep miniatures out of reach of children. Pokeruto, INC, is not responsible for injury or death resulting from use or misuse of Pokeruto miniatures. Caution: Miniatures may be hot if left in a hot area or in direct exposure to the sun.
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett
You know, Lorthyne, that's more or less exactly what I was going to say! (Something like fighting pixel chix....)
Except, you haven't mentioned the novel market channel that they would be distributed through.
I predict that this will be bands of wandering gypsies.*
* - Not really. But it would be way cooler.